Teams sign agreement to lock in budget cap
The finalisation of the highly contentious 2021 regulations has been officially delayed until the end of October.
Earlier, the strict deadline for the publication of the technical, sporting and financial regulations for the post-Concorde Agreement period was June.
But the teams are hopelessly split on a range of key issues, prompting the FIA to call a crisis meeting in Paris that took place on Thursday.
Lewis Hamilton and Nico Hulkenberg even attended the meeting at the governing body's headquarters at Place de la Concorde, after an invitation by Jean Todt prompted by recent critical comments made by a range of drivers.
"In the interests of the sport it was agreed that the best outcome will be achieved by using the extra time for further refinement and additional consultation," a statement said after the meeting.
What was also agreed, but not mentioned in the statement, is that Liberty Media asked the teams to sign an agreement promising to lock in certain agreed rules that benefit the smaller teams.
They include the $175 million budget cap, the standardisation of certain parts, new parc ferme rules and free practice times, and the continuation of the current engines.
La Gazzetta dello Sport said that if the big teams break the agreement, Liberty will "unilaterally" announce the 2021 rules prior to the new October deadline.
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$175M is Mercedes catering budget. Smaller teams will go broke anyway and as they disappear Merc/Ferrari/Renault will run junior blocking teams with their excess bucks, Red Bull does it already. The crybabies who think it's boring now will shit their pants when that starts to happen.
These problems were predicted years ago when manufacturers were allowed to enter the sport. If we do not get a level playing field soon, most teams will disappear, and formula one will become a three team joke. I agree with you Ben, Mercedes spend more on lunches than other teams entire yearly budgets. Hollow meaningless victories for me.
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